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2012-01-23 - Goteborgnonstop Interview
Jimmie Strimell was interviewed by Swedish website Goteborgnonstop regarding the Eurovision Song Contest, Dead by Aprils breakthrough and the Angels of Clarit remix among others. The article was published on January 23, 2012. Script : The interview was done in Swedish and is therefore translated into English. Goteborgnonstop is rarely writing about hard rock. We're not really due with the Eurovision Song Contest either. But Gothenburgers Dead by April are an interesting hybrid of hard rock and pop, and are also very nice so we felt that it was time to look up. Here is an interview with singer Jimmie Strimmell. Q: You've had pretty good flow from the start with early contract with Universal, major festival appearances and songs featured in various media productions, which generated widespread. Did you simply work extremely hard or was it a bit of luck involved? Can you describe how you started and your breakthrough a little bit? Jimmie Strimell: It all started with me and Pontus releasing two songs on Myspace that quickly became very popular. We sat awake day and night and added people from similar bands and it made us rise rapidly on Myspace's demoband list. We ended up at spot one rather quickly and it made the record companies and management's to get in touch. This also meant that we got some pretty big gigs and got to support Illnino on tour. Then we got to play the demo stage at the Hultsfred and broke box office records with about 800 attendees in the audience... Fairly quickly after we started negotiating with Universal and signed the deal with them five months later. We started recording our debut album and came in contact with TV4's managers and had a great meeting with them, Universal and EMI publishing. TV4 had developed an idea that they wanted to use our hit Losing You as the theme song to the 2009 Robinson trailer, and after that everything started to roll at the speed of light. That was crazy, we went from playing small clubs to go on tour with Mustasch, Skindred, In Flames and more to play at huge stages at various festivals around. So yes, we've certainly had a lot of luck but at the same time, we have been working our asses off to end up where we are today. Q: How are the dynamics within the group when you're reacing success that fast? Jimmie Strimell: It's certainly no bed of roses to play in a successful band where you really doesn't know the guys very well from the start. It's five different personalities to get along and live together with for weeks in a tour bus, but at the same time it's something we've all dreamed about since we were little boys. So we have something in common, after all, and now we know each other really well and have learned to support each other in all situations. We have never felt this good as we do now and we are super focused on making it as good as we can. Q: You have been a part of various TV productions, most recent is the contribution to the Eurovision Song Contest. Meanwhile, your album could be listened to in its entirety on the web, etc and you have a wide distribution on Youtube. Is it a necessity and active strategy to reach out now that the record companies slopes with sales? Jimmie Strimell: Yes, we're not the ones who decide when and where to play. That's the record label and our management and booking company that fixes and juggle with any TV appearances. Of course we want to play as much as possible and be seen everywhere, and we try to put out as many tour video diaries as possible. Well we have gotten a little worse at it now to how it was before but we will improve. The stuff available on Youtube are actually fans filming and spreading. Q: "Hard rock" is now housebroken and sold in racks at Schell gas stations and performs at the Eurovision Song Contest Why is that? Are they the people who grew up in the 80's and listened to Maiden etc which now sits in positions in media and simply decides? Jimmie Strimell: An explanation of the hard rock distribution can clearly be because people who have something to say in the music industry has sprung up on the 70-80s century and want to reach out "real" music in more popular contexts. I think the reason why it becomes more and more heavy music played at the Eurovision Song Contest is because people are tired of the boring shit music that has been played there throughout the 2000s. It was great back in the 70 - and 80's and now we're getting somewhere again. People maybe lost interest in Eurovision and felt that something had to change. Hard rock music have been around for 40 years now and will most likely not go away. Now maybe I sound cocky but I think we will do something really cool and new and get people to wake up to our appearance in Eurovision. Q: "Blood fire death" is a recent book about the Swedish metal scene in the 90's, perhaps mostly about Black Metal as a disbudded and mean development of The Gothenburg Sound. Have you read the book? What does your metal story look like? What was it that made you start playing it? Jimmie Strimell: actually I have not read the book, I'll be honest, I do not read books at all. I probably have dyslexia, I think. I got into playing music when I heard Metallica's Black album. I saw them live and was sold directly. Then I started listening to some harder music like Sepultura, Pantera and the band Death. Q: What is the weirdest gig you've ever done? You have a fun anecdote to offer? Jimmie Strimell: Actually, it was recently when we played at a big event where all bookers and management companies in Scandinavia meet and talk about what festivals and town celebrations that can be offered during the summer. We usually does not play in front costume dressed ladies and gentlemen sitting down at tables and drinking champagne. But we showed the horns and asked everyone to come closer to the stage and it took about two songs until they relaxed a little and jumped and clapped their hands in time and started headbanging so that it rattled in their pearl necklaces. It was probably the weirdest gig we've done, but sometimes you have to do those kinds of shows too. Q: If you could choose any band or artist to cover of one of your songs, who would you pick? Any motivation for that? Jimmie Strimell: We have actually already experienced this. All the DBA members grew up with Slipknot and listen carefully now: Clown from Slipknot rang up our A & R at Universal and asked if we thought it was okay that he did a remix of one of our songs (Angels of Clarity). We couldn't believe it! I was to jump through the roof when I heard this - I have followed them for ten years and been a huge fan. I've seen them four times live at various venues around Scandinavia so this was totally cool to be a part of. The remix was perhaps not as cool as I had expected but the thing that the Clown himself from Slipknot made a remix of one of our songs was absolutely awesome! We are still waiting for them to ask us if we want to go on tour with them... Q: What do you usually listen to in the tour bus? Jimmie Strimell:It's just too much music to mention, but there's everything from White Chappel to Justin Timberlake. We like all kinds of music, the only thing we do not listen to is dance band and techno/trance: I know Alex digs it but he doesn't dare to play it because he knows that the rest of us hate it, haha. Q: What does the near future hold? Jimmie Strimell: We're gonna play at the Eurovision Song Contest on February 4. Then it will be as it looks now to fly over to Texas and play at South by Southwest festival and it will be nervous as hell... A few different record labels that are interested in signing us are gonna show up, so if we do a good job there we might get a deal in the next year in the U.S. and that's something we've been waiting for a long time now. We have many fans across the net from the United States who are waiting for us to get there and tour.